Abstract: Orientation and Mobility training is one of
the most important areas to help students with vision impairment to be
integrated into ordinary school confidently and efficiently. It is absolutely
essential for preschool students, because independent movement effects the
student’s development and learning processes. Although every educator is aware
of the importance of Orientation and Mobility skills for preschool students,
some may not make the necessary effort to develop an appropriate and successful
program. This paper will review the Orientation and Mobility teaching in
Vietnam and suggest an approach which uses ‘active learning’ methodology to
encourage preschool students to play to learn and to learn to play. This method
of teaching would assist educators to create necessary adaptations which take
into considering local social, cultural and economical issues, and to make
maximum use of local resources to provide better Orientation and Mobility
training to preschool students with vision impairment and to enable them to be
better integrated into mainstream education and into their local communities.

In recent years, the
government and educators in Vietnam have paid more attention to inclusive
education and early intervention for children with vision impairment. Early
intervention has been seen as a necessary priority and one which may lead to
successful inclusive education programs. A program for preschool students was
started in 1999 in Ho Chi Minh City, in the South of Vietnam. One of the most
important subjects of this program is Orientation and Mobility (O&M),
because independent movement would effect the student’s development, influence
learning processes, help social and educational integration, and improve
confidence when integrated into ordinary school. However, the development of an
appropriate approach to teach O&M to preschool students is a topic that
still requires in depth consideration and discussion.

Following are two aspects that would need to be considered:

- Review of the existing Orientation and Mobility programs
for preschool students in Vietnam.

- The application of ‘Active learning’: An approach to
teaching O&M to preschool students in Vietnam.

REVIEW OF THE EXISTING
O&M PROGRAM FOR PRESCHOOL STUDENTS IN VIETNAM

In the preschool program in Vietnam, O&M is one of the
major subjects. Instructors have used the traditional methods to teach O&M
to preschool students. These traditional methods use instruction methods in
which the instructors give instructions and the students do whatever the
instructor requires. This method relies on teaching and directing the student,
rather than allowing the student to learn. After two years, teachers reported
that some preschool students could not achieved the goals that had been set for
the whole school year, while other students achieved but did not enjoy their
learning. Several disadvantages of the traditional methods have been
recognized. These include:

* Students were passive. They learned only the concepts that
their instructor taught them.

* Students did not enjoy learning. With the traditional
instruction method, students often feel that the lesson was boring and tiring
as they had to concentrate hard to do what the teacher wants, not what they
would like to do.

* Students did not have the courage nor permission to
explore the environment by themselves.

* Sometimes, the teacher followed up the lesson after the
instructor, using what the instructor thought was useful but the students did
not remember because they were not interested in this particular information.

* Students may gain some skills separately but could not
combine or link these skills.

* When the instructor was not with them, the students did
not apply their skills in other environments of their daily lives

* Parents and other specialists did not participate in the
O&M training process.

* Many students did not achieve the goals and objectives of
the O&M program, because the program was planned for every student
regardless of the students’ ability, level of development and degree of
impairments.

Specialists have called out for an alternative
methodological approach, which changes the function of O&M instructors.
This new approach requires give-and-take between the instructor and the student
(Roman & Zimmerman, 1994). Since September 2001, a new method to teach
O&M to preschool students has been introduced and tried in Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam. This is the active learning approach.

Active learning is an approach in which the student is an
active partner in the teaching-learning process. It does not mean that the instructor
does not provide instructions to the student. According to Brannock and Golding
(2000), at the beginning, the instructor strongly direct the student, but as
the student learns how to attend to relevant environmental information, the
instructor input reduces while the student input increases.

The active learning approach to teach O&M in Vietnam is
developed from the child learning centered approach of Brannock and Golding
(2000) and the active learning approach that was introduced by Lilli Nielsen (1993),
with adaptations to suit the social, economical and cultural issues and the
characteristics of preschool students in Vietnam.

The active learning approach to teach O&M uses the
following principles:

1. The preschool
student is given opportunities to learn from his/her own individual level.

The active learning approach provides O&M training to
each preschool student according to the student’s ability and needs, as stated
in the Individual Education Plan. This approach is a child learning centered approach
that focuses on each individual student’s learning and helps each individual
develop in their particular way to gain the skills. It is more suitable for
Vietnamese preschool students because they are very different in degree of
vision impairments and developmental levels.

2. The instructor
allows the student to learn-to-play and to play-to-learn.

Preschool age is a period of extreme
creativity and imagination (Skellenger and Hill, 1997). Students are very
active in playing and would learn the skills through play and by their own
activities. This approach alters O&M lessons to games that the students
play together and play with the instructor. Lessons are combinations of games,
songs, stories, and movements. They look more like play than work. This is
especially appropriate to Vietnamese children. Most of them were visually
impaired because of deficiency or deprivation of food and of appropriate
medical intervention. They have poor health, lack confidence, lack motivation
and demonstrate poor communication skills. They need to learn how to play and
since they have started playing, they would learn by play. For instance, the
NBC game of Brannock and Golding (2000) is used to develop the senses. NBC
stands for ‘Near By Considerations’, an attention directing tool for increasing
the student’s sensory awareness of their surroundings. Playing this game, the
students would learn how to use the senses meaningfully, systematically, and
automatically. This type of game encourages the students to move and they thoroughly
enjoy learning.

3. The student is
allowed to discover, experiment, explore and perform a skill in his/her own
way.

This approach encourages preschool students to move and to
explore the world. The more they have the desire to explore, the more they
enjoy moving, and the more their O&M skills are developed. Nielsen
discovered that if a child is “given opportunity to learn from his own active
exploration and examination, the child will achieve skills that become part of
his personality.” (Nielsen, 1993:19). O&M skills are fundamental to
exploring and in turn, exploring promotes the development of O&M skills.

In
addition, the instructor allows the student to act in his/her own way. The
active learning approach is essential in the ‘6-Step Method’ of teaching a
route (Brannock and Golding, 2000).

·
Step one is Establish Your Position (EYP): the students
examine a start point and two near by features.

·
Step two is Establish Your Target (YET): the students
examine the target point and two near by features.

·
Step three is Distance, Direction and Time (DDT): the
O&M instructor provides an estimate of the distance and direction to the
target and time it will take.

·
Step four is Near By Consideration (NBC): the
instructor helps the students to gather information in the surroundings by
using their senses.

·
Step five is Useful, Useless and Interesting (UUI): the
students are asked whether any information was useful, useless or interesting.
Finally,

·
Step six is Say The Route (STR): the students are asked
to say the route in their own words.

This
6-step method gives students opportunities to actively participate throughout
the lesson. To achieve active learning, the student is given sufficient time
for doing and thinking, as well as opportunity to repeat it many times if
necessary in order to store, confirm and comprehend the information gained
(Nielsen, 1993). This approach allows students to review the lessons by playing
and gives them opportunities to compare their experiences, link new experiences
to other experiences, to catagorise and generalise experiences.

4. The student would
be able to use O&M skills in other areas of learning.

The active learning approach links formal O&M skills
with other skills such as concept development, language development, motor
development, environment awareness, and community awareness (Anthony et al.,
1992). This approach can also tie O&M training in with other subjects such
as activities of daily living, Braille, mathematics, etc. For instance, the
WESST game, a technique for directing attention to the important properties of
an object (Brannock and Golding, 2000), could be use not only in O&M
lessons but also in teaching Braille and mathematics. WESST stands for Weight,
Ends and Edges, Size, Shape, Sound, and Texture. By playing this game many
times, the students would be able to examine an object systematically and
automatically. Vietnamese children enjoy the WESST game very much and apply it
many times in other subjects.

5. The active
learning approach establishes a comfortable working relationship between the
instructor and the student.

This approach relies on an open and cooperative relationship
between the instructor and the students. The instructor provides suggestions
rather than directions, and in addition, the instructor creates a way to
attract the attention of the students to whatever the instructor wants them to
pay attention to. Through playing together, the students feel more comfortable
and close to the instructor. This approach encourages the students to communicate
with the instructor by sharing their experience. In practice, there are
instructors who do not like to change the relationship with students, because
according to Vietnamese tradition, students always have to obey passively. Some
instructors have felt that their authority was decreased. On the contrary,
other instructors have received good results in changing the relationship. As
the students enjoy to work with instructors, it is easier to draw them to the
objectives of the lessons.

6. Together with a
coordinated approach, the active learning approach makes maximum use of local
human resources.

The interrelationship between preschool students and other
members in their families is especially strong and important. One of the
characteristics of Vietnamese is a very close relationship between members of a
big family of three or four generations and a close relationship with
neighbours and other people in local communities. O&M program involves not
only parents but also other members in the families such as grandparents,
siblings, relatives and people in the local communities such as teachers and
students at the ordinary schools, neighbours, village workers, doctors,
specialists and volunteers. Workshops to train these people are essential to
provide basic O&M skills and train participants to know how to play with
and assist the preschool students to apply O&M skills to their daily lives
at home, in the school and in local communities. By cooperating with families,
ordinary schools and communities, the instructor would be able to modify the
O&M program to suit the needs of each student and each family while taking
into account the social, economical and cultural issues of each community.

7. The active
learning approach makes maximum use of local material resources. O&M
activities are more motivating and enjoyable through the use of interesting and
playful materials. However, Vietnam is a developing country. Even though the
government is paying more attention to education for preschool students with
vision impairment, it is not able to provide the necessary funds for purchasing
teaching aids and other educational resources. This approach encourages the
instructor to use every day items and any appropriate resources in local
communities to teach O&M skills such as bamboo, coconut hard cover, coconut
trees, wood, various types of rice and bean, various types of shells and
pebbles, second-hand stuff, etc. When understanding the O&M program, other
members in the educational team will find and create many different resources
or introduce resources that can be purchased at low cost. Even the preschool
students themselves may create and use very simple resources.

8. The active
learning approach helps to increase positive self-esteem and develop a more
positive and wholesome personality.

This approach provides the students with more opportunities
to explore the environment and make social contact with people. Lack of moving
may result in lack of confidence and a shy and reserved personality. Many
Vietnamese preschool students do not frequently have opportunities to interact
with other children and adults, particularly if they come from communities
where people have an inappropriate attitude towards children with vision
impairment. Some believe that the parents or grandparents of the child must
have done something wrong in the past so now have a child with vision
impairment. Some parents blame themselves. In many cases parents do not want
anybody to know of the existence of their child in the house. The active
learning approach gives students a willingness to face the challenges because
the students have been encouraged to move, explore, develop and satisfy their
curiosity. They also build up decision-making skills. Even though the students
are still very young, they need to be encouraged to take responsibility for
their actions and accept the consequences of their decision (Jacobson, 1993).
From observations, the students appear more willing to take risks, are more
confident in problem solving and decision-making while moving in familiar or
unfamiliar environment including the ordinary preschool where they are
integrated.

Although this active learning approach has been used in
Vietnam for one school year only, it has made a big change. Preschool students
show more confidence and independence than previously. They have improved not
only in their O&M skills but also in motor and language skills and their
concept development. However, every change needs time and will encounter many
difficulties as it grows in acceptance. It is hoped that the active learning
approach will be included in the teacher training programs and be used more
broadly in Vietnam in the near future. This would ensure the provision of
better O&M training to preschool students with vision impairment and would
enable them to be better integrated in mainstreaming education and in local
communities.

Anthony, T.L.; Fazzi, D.L.; Lampert, J.S.; & Pogrund,
R.L. (1992). “Movement Focus: Orientation and Mobility for Young Blind and
Visually Impaired Children.” In R.L. Pogrund; D.L. Fazzi; & J.S. Lampert
(eds) Early Focus – Working with Young
Blind and Visually Impaired Children and Their Families. New York: American
Foundation for the Blind.